There's so much news bouncing around the Internet Machine today regarding the utterly avoidable, destructive, and idiotic GOP government shutdown that all the stories deserved a round-up post of their own. Some of the reports are infuriating, some are somewhat reassuring, some are heartbreaking, and others are actually amusing, in a dark, What Are They Thinking? kind of way.

I retort, you deride, starting with this "Libertarian Magic Dust" video:

House Republicans on Tuesday will move to re-open small portions of the federal government, bringing up bills to fund the National Park Service, part of the Department of Veterans Affairs and operations for the District of Columbia. [...]

Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) and his team are trying to deflect blame for the shutdown and show that Republicans are still doing their part to keep open important parts of the government.